Westchester charges 2 in alleged Nigeria-themed Internet scam
January 22, 2003, 5:41 PM EST
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A husband and wife claiming ties to the Nigerian
government duped a Wisconsin businessman out of $200,000 in a scam
familiar to hundreds of thousands of e-mail users, the Westchester
district attorney said Wednesday.
Chuks Nwogu, 32, of Mount Vernon, a Nigerian national, and Svitlana
Nwogu, 25, of the Bronx, were arrested after the victim, expecting
millions of dollars in cash, opened a chest and found only worthless
paper, District Attorney Jeanine Pirro said.
The man had mortgaged his house to pay some of the fees that the couple
demanded as they strung him along with promises of a one-third share in
a $50 million windfall, she said.
The Secret Service says similar Nigeria-themed mass e-mailings, which
are sent to Europe as well as the United States, solicit enough trusting
responses that Americans alone are losing hundreds of millions of
dollars a year. Rafael Figueroa, who heads the White Plains office of
the Secret Service, said there have been "many arrests around the
country."
"If it looks too good to be true, it probably is," Pirro said. "I
caution people to be very, very circumspect when it comes to these
Nigerian letters and solicitations. ... Ignore them or call the Secret
Service."
In the Westchester case, there was evidence of identity theft as well,
Pirro said. She said the scammers probably checked up on potential
victims and by the time a second contact was made, "knew full well the
people they're dealing with are capable of delivering the money."
The husband was arrested Jan. 14, the same day the businessman realized
he'd been fooled and went to police in Ardsley. The wife was arrested _
and the couple was indicted _ Tuesday. They could be sentenced to up to
15 years in prison if convicted.
The victim, whose name was not made public, was solicited by e-mail last
January to help get $50 million from Nigeria into the United States. The
couple claimed to represent the Nigerian government, though
investigators have found no real ties, Pirro said.
When the businessman responded to the e-mail, he was told some payments
would be necessary for transfer fees, document fees and the like. He was
sent certificates purporting to certify the money as "terrorist-free and
drug-free," Pirro said.
Finally, the couple told the man to fly in to LaGuardia Airport, where
they met him and took him to Ardsley, where he handed over a final
$34,000. Svitlana Nwogu took off with that money, Pirro said, and the
man was given the trunk full of black paper, cut in the shape of
currency. He was told that if a chemical was added to the paper it would
be revealed to be currency, which was not true.
Realizing he was duped, the man went to police, who with the help of the
Secret Service arrested the couple and found their alleged storage
space, which turned up fake driver's licenses, resident alien cards and
Social Security cards, plus $27,000 in cash and what appear to be credit
reports of people from Louisiana, California, Texas and Indiana who may
also have been victims.
"It is evidence of an identity theft and it is very disturbing that
people from all over the country who probably don't even know about it
had a credit check run on them based on information that we believe
these defendants secured," Pirro said.
A Secret Service alert, posted on its Web site, says the Nigerian scam,
also known as advance fee fraud, entices victims "into believing they
have been singled out from the masses to share in multimillion-dollar
windfall profits for doing absolutely nothing."
Earlier Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission listed "foreign money
offers" as its sixth highest category of consumer fraud complaints, with
4 percent of all complaints.
___
On the Net:
Secret Service alert on Nigerian advance fee frauds:
http://www.usss.treas.gov/alert419.shtml
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
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